drascus
June 10th, 2008, 03:24 PM
If you are an ubuntu user and committed to using free software there is an option for you. Though some might see it as a compromise. Why not just use gnewsense? because a recent update in gnewsense broke most peoples sound and wireless cards regardless of whether or not they had free drivers openly available. I found out however that when you are in the boot menu for the ubuntu live Cd that you can press the F6 key. A menu then opens with an option for a Free Software only install. This does a complete ubuntu install minus anything from restricted. now this is a compromise because obviously it doesn't remove anything from the kernal so all the proprietary blobs there remain. Now correct me if I am wrong because I probably am. If I understand right as long as you don't use hardware that needs those blobs they essentially just sit there and don't preform any function. So just make sure that your hardware doesn't need one them. here is a link that lets you do that: http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/ Then if you are of the mind that Firefox doesn't qualify as Free Software you can just uninstall it and go for ephiany or Gnu IceCat. this has worked well for me. If anyone thinks this doesn't qualify as a true Free Software install then please I would love to hear your thoughts.